Man Faces Six Years Prison for Posting Provocative Jokowi Memes

The police have arrested a 21-year-old man for allegedly posting negative memes online that accused President Joko Widodo’s administration of being a pro-communist regime.

Among the dozens of provocative content he posted on his Instagram account @haidar_bsa between July and August 2017, he also uploaded pictures that likened Karnavian to the former leader of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), DN Aidit.

“The suspect has been detained and investigators are investigating this case,” said East Java Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Frans Barung Mangera, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Barung said that the suspect, named Haidar, got the pictures from some of the Instagram accounts he followed. The pictures were then reposted by him along with provocative captions, the police said. His account has been deactivated.

Haidar said that the motive behind his actions of posting Jokowi memes and hate-filled content online was because he disagrees with the government and wants to criticize its policies.

“I regret it and will not do it again. I did it spontaneously,” Haidar said.

Haidar was arrested on September 25 on the grounds of suspected violation of the law on suspected technology (UU ITE) and faces a maximum sentence of six years imprisonment.